Bill Stevens was in the hospital only about 12 hours this week — but long enough for Bill Mirick to find him, thank him for his service to the country and give him a small U.S. flag.

“I thought I was just another spot in a bed,” said a surprised 51-year-old Stevens, who served in the Army in 1979-80.

An effort by OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital to ensure that every hospitalized veteran gets a visit and a thank-you from a fellow veteran began about a year ago.

Among the lessons learned: Never underestimate the value of a simple gesture of gratitude.

“The most important thing is the presentation of that flag,” said Mirick, an 82-year-old volunteer in the program.

“You can see their eyes brighten, their faces light up. It’s amazing.”

I followed Mirick, a member of VFW Post 2398 in Worthington who has made more than 160 visits, on his rounds this week.

A big man with a big heart, Mirick — a former Navy “frogman” in the Korean War — worried initially that he’d have a hard time breaking the ice.

Yet his easy manner — and the bond he shares with other veterans — puts people at ease.

He likes to get down on one knee to be at eye level with a patient in bed.

He always has a military joke or two at the ready, changing the branch of service in the punch line to suit the situation. And he always leaves information on well-known and lesser-known benefits. (In Ohio, for example, Purple Heart recipients get a free driver’s license.)

In a year of volunteering, he has come across just one patient who refused a visit.

He has stopped in rooms where families sat rapt while patients told Mirick war stories they hadn’t told before.

“I’ll come out of some of those rooms crying,” said Mirick, who has war stories of his own he hasn’t told.

His most memorable visit was with a young woman who had lost both legs in Afghanistan. She gave birth to a baby at Riverside.

“She was so upbeat,” he said. “She had these spring-type (prostheses), and she said, ‘I can outrun my husband on these.’”

The veterans’ initiative was started by Gerry O’Shaughnessy, longtime manager of Riverside volunteer services.

She calls it the most rewarding program she has started at the hospital “because it really touches people.”

Before I left him, I joined Mirick in the room of a 65-year-old, Peter Soter, who had served with the Marines in the Vietnam War era.

Soter got a flag, a lapel pin and an information packet. And, as Mirick left the room, he left Soter with one more thing: a salute, from one veteran to another.